We have many exciting developments to share regarding faculty development. Many institutional leadership and faculty development programs have demonstrated long-lasting and positive effects on faculty development, physician engagement, and leadership skills building through structured, regular interactions. To promote such growth and development at UMMC, leadership within the Department of Medicine (DOM) have proposed a novel venue, the DOM Leadership Development Forum that is aimed at promoting sustainable leadership and professional development for members of the Department.

It is a clear hope that the Forum will provide a longitudinal and inclusive series of events aimed to promote engagement between key leaders from within UMMC in addition to leaders from outside of the institution and faculty participants. Participants will include existing departmental leadership, educational and research program leaders, chief residents, departmental business leadership and 13 faculty “Future Leaders” who were nominated from members of the Department.

Dr. Woodward speaking at the first Department of Medicine Leadership Forum

The DOM Leadership Forum kicked off on August 21st and featured Dr. LouAnn Woodward, Dean of the UMMC School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor or Health Affairs. The next speaker in the series will be UMMC HealthCare System CEO Kevin Cook.

Additionally, the Department’s 2019-2020 Strategic Initiatives include several new endeavors in faculty development. Offering Faculty Development as quarterly area of focus in Grand Rounds will begin in August 2019 and will join education and other clinical topics as a common theme in the series. A second standalone Faculty Development conference series will begin in September and be ongoing and will deliver specific faculty development topics to those interested faculty on a recurring basis. This series entitled “Faculty Development Community Conversations” will feature smaller group sizes over a lunch conference geared towards education, promotion, activity in scholarship, and overall professional development. Stay tuned for these offerings.

Lastly, be on the lookout for details of the opening of the Department of Medicine Academy of Medical Educators and Scholars in 2020. More info to come in future postings.